HALF HEARTED SERVICE: GRADUAL
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com (YouTube: Wade Hughes)
I lived in Lee County, Virginia and we would travel 68 from our house through Cumberland Gap, Tennessee to Middlesboro, Ky. We traveled through the national park. Linda and I would see a ground hog. The ground hog would stand on his hind legs to watch the traffic go by. We developed a love watching the ground hog. We would often stop and watch the ground hog from a distance. We would even stop and talk to the ground hog. Seemed he paid attention to us. He would come up and stay back maybe 50 feet. Over the weeks of traveling by the ground hog was about 45 feet from the side of the road. Then over time he would be closer and closer to the main road. Finally he would come maybe 10 feet from the road. I warned the ground hog several times. You are getting too close to the road. The last time we saw him alive he was standing on the white line at the very edge of the road. Gradually the ground hog lost his FEAR, RESPECT for the dangers of a busy road. One day he became a smashed ground hog. He should have listened.
TODAY OUR FAMILIES, SCHOOLS, NATION AND THE CHURCH HAS LOST THE PRIORITY SYSTEM OF ETERNITY. Life is full of gradualness. To get fat? Children grow up? Lose your hair? Eye sight? Car rust? Aging? Death can be a slow process?
HARD TO HEAR: SPIRITUAL DANGER
2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
* Gradual: proceed by small steps, move by slight degrees, proceeding in small stages, not steep or abrupt, something that happens slowly, slow and steady over a period of time, subtle – difficult to notice, stagnant
The Roman Empire did not come to an abrupt end. Rome’s decline happened over 4 centuries.
THE SPIRIT OF GRADUALNESS SLIPPED INTO THE SEVEN CHURCHES IN REVELATION.
Revelation 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
• I KNOW YOUR WORKS: God is omnipresent and all knowing... God has an “ALL SEEING EYE WATCHING YOU.” danger: gradualness.
• BECAUSE YOU ARE LUKEWARM: wrong priorities, no zeal, loss of passion, indifferent, not enthusiastic, neutral – neither for or against, not interested, no concern.
• WE DEVELOP A HALF-HEARTED SERVICE: Do I have to? Remember the story in 2 Kings 13:18? Joah visits the old preacher because it was the political thing for the young king to do. The preacher said: Take your bow, take the arrows, put your hand on, open the window, shoot out the window, take the arrows in your hand --- all these things the king did --- HALF HEARTED --- now HIT THE GROUND === IN ANGER THE PREACHER WARNED THE COST OF HALF HEARTED SERVICE === THE KING HIT THE GROUND 3 TIMES === 2 MORE TIMES? 5 WOULD HAVE GOTTEN TOTAL VICTORY OVER SYRIA. To this day Syria is a thorn in Israel’s side.
• NOT COLD
• NOT HOT --- but LUKEWARM. (HALF HEARTED SERVICE)
• NOT FRESH --- NOT FREE --- I HAVE NEED OF NOTHING! FALSE TRUST… I AM RICH? NO YOU ARE MISERABLE. GRADUALLY YOU ENDED UP LUKEWARM.
Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
THE GRASS IS GREENER OVER THERE? WHAT HAPPENED LOT? THERE IS NO RECORD OF LOT EVER BUILDING HIS OWN ALTARS… HOW DID LOT’S WIFE TURN TO SALT? HOW DID HE FATHER HIS GRANDKIDS?
Abraham gave Lot his choice of the land. Lot’s demand reveals his true character. Lot chose the best and lack of honor gave Abraham what was left.
Genesis 13:9 Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.
10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. 11 Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. 12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.
The spirit of gradualness leads to a lingering Lot. Lot never lingered at the altar. There are not recorded prayers of Lot? No tears? He was not hot --- Lot was LUKEWARM.
KING SAUL THE TALL MIDGET THAT LOST HIS ANOINTING BY POOR CHOICES.
Saul was the basketball coach’s delight. He was head and shoulder taller than the average man of his day. Saul was looking for his dad’s donkey’s and meet Samuel the preacher. Samuel anointed Saul the first king of Israel. Saul could prophesy with the prophets. Saul got tired of waiting on the preacher and he went ahead and did church. Saul was not a priest. Saul waited 7 days and did his own thing.
1 Samuel 13:9 And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering. 10 And it came to pass, that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might salute him. 11 And Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash;
THE TALL MIDGET SHOWS HIS REAL SELF. SAUL BLAMES EVERYONE BUT HIMSELF.
1 Samuel 13:13 And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. 14 But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.
THE PREACHER HEARS SOMETHING IN THE DISTANCE? IS THAT A MOOING COW?
1 Samuel 15:14 And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
GRADDUALLY SAUL WENT FROM LITTLE TO A BIG SHOT ABOUT GOD. GRADUALLY THE PROPHET KING OVERRIDES THE PREACHER AND GOD… THE PRICE TAG IS HIGH.
1 Samuel 15:15 And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. 16 Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. 17 And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
Read the end of Saul: ALL THE KINGS MEN --- ALL HIS SONS DIE BEFORE HIS EYES? He kills himself. King Saul gradually went from obeying God to boldly undermining the preacher.
THERE IS A GREAT DANGER IN SLOWLY DRIFTING OFF COURSE SO SLOW THAT YOU GO BLIND?
Judges 16:20 And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him.
GRADUALNESS? MY FRIEND, I AM SORRY: THERE ARE THOSE THAT THOUGHT THEY WERE FULL? FULL OF WHAT? SELF?
Matthew 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com (YouTube: Wade Hughes)
